Correcting Vista’s Media Center Black Screen
Window Vista Media Center
While trying to use Windows Vista’s Media Center I ran into an interesting problem. The Media Center would run, but not display. I could hear it starting up, and I could hear when my mouse would hover over an active menu item but the only thing I had to look at was a black screen. After a quick little bing of the issue at hand I learned that this is a very common problem… especially for people with systems right out of the box as mine was.
It turns out that the issue is with some systems pre-configured video decoder settings. That’s answer is usually enough to shy me away from any type of solution (yes, I’m a tech geek that actually doesn’t like playing with the system registry) but after a little more investigating I found a very easy solution.
As it turns out, Microsoft has a handy Video Decoder Checkup Utility that will determine if your current/selected videos decoders are up to Vista’s Media Center’s standards and correct this little annoyance. The website says it’s for Windows XP but it’s compatible with Vista as well. Simply verify your Windows installation, download the app and run it. The application will show your video decoders, their compatibility with Windows Media Player, and even make a recommendation about what decoder you should be using.
Window XP Video Decoder
All that was left to do was select the encoder I wanted to use (again, I selected one that the application itself recommended) and reboot the system. When the system came up I launched Media Player again and this time everything was working as it should. Now the only question remains, “Why wouldn’t these decoders come selected out of the box?”
It didn’t work for me. Still black, but with audio. To be exact, only loading sound. Then it just stays black, until I Alt-F4 it. But thanks for the suggestion.